The Christmases before Christmas

Happy New Year!

We've been really busy these past few weeks with driving. Up and down California for family Christmases, all before we even celebrate Christmas! Our celebration of Christmas is on January 7th, but this is sort of nice because we get a lot of the gift giving and familial Christmases out of the way, and we have time to really enjoy and spiritually prepare for the Nativity of Christ.

Christmas with us starts for Advent, a time of fasting and prayer, but not as strict as the Lent before Pascha. We do an Advent wreath, and finally got it set up:

Yes, that is what happened to the St. Lucia Day crown...

But it took us a while to get the rest of our decorations up. First we had to go down for the Big Family Christmas with all the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

And no, this is still not everyone. This is just everyone who could *make it*

The proximity of everyone and routine with which we get together always confused me when I was asked about my 'immediate' family.

We had a good time seeing everyone. My cousins hosted:

You need a big tree for a big family.

This being only one of the tables set up...

And this is the means by which we are eventually going to conquer....

Of course, Athanasius was everywhere:

Attempting to have some sherry, apparently.

And treating furniture as a jungle gym.

We came back up to Fresno, then almost immediately went back down for Christmas with just my parents and siblings. Packaged up our biggest gift this year:

This really opened my eyes to the pointlessness of cribs.

And he had fun opening more presents:

In his new "Dennis the Menace" outfit, which was a gift from my grandparents

I got a cast iron tea set for Christmas, from my sister, which is awesome, but my niece felt she had to make it 'pretty'

Luckily her brother got a magnet set 

We came back up to Fresno for a night, with just enough time after the kid fell asleep to enjoy this:

One of my favorite traditions

And then drove up north to see OrthoMom's grandparents!

Quite a bit of room to crawl around.

And he was very intrigued by Great-Grandpa's cane. You can see it stashed away up there.

He had a good time, methinks.

Even if it took an act of Congress to get him to sleep! Too many interesting things to see.

Back down to Fresno in time for Church...

Ha, he looks Amish.

And to finally put up our own decorations!

With, of course, a little elf to "help"

OrthoMom is dying to know what's in that big silver box. 

And so we're getting closer to the day when Christ was born, and today getting closer to the New Year. We hope everyone had a great Christmas, or will have, depending on your calendar, and that you all get to enjoy the entire Christmas season (which is still ongoing!). 

Here, we're still waiting!